This invention relates to flavoring foodstuffs, to compositions for flavoring foodstuffs, and to the products so obtained.
Much attention has been devoted to improving the flavor of foodstuffs and particularly the flavors of meat products, fruits and confectioneries. There is also a need to provide compositions and processes for improving the flavors of meat products such as patties containing beef, lamb, chicken, duck or turkey meat, of for providing savory meat or poultry flavors to foods containing a low level of meat products originally having only a low level of flavor.
A substantial number of investigations have been carried out relating to reacting such materials as amino acids, hydrolyzed vegetable proteins, sugars, sulfur-containing compounds (e.g., cysteine and hydrogen sulfide) and ribonucleotides in an effort to produce meaty tasting products including poultry meat tasting products, or ingredients therefor. Thus, for example, the following publications set forth such reaction products and methods for preparing same.
______________________________________ Publication Reactants ______________________________________ (1) U.S. Pat. Poultry meat flavor produced by 3,394,017 reacting thiamine and a mixture of amino acids. (2) U.S. Pat. Poultry flavor produced by 3,519,437 reacting thiamine and 2-amino- ethane sulfonic acid. (3) U.S. Pat. Cysteine, sugar, fatty acid 3,532,514 material. (4) Belgian Pat. Reducing sugar and fish product 740,221 extract. (5) U.S. Pat. Enzymatic digest of meat extract 3,645,753 hydrolyzed vegetable protein and yeast autolysate. (6) U.S. Pat. Sulfur-containing compound and 3,394,015 hydrolyzed vegetable protein (sugar-free). (7) U.S. Pat. Thiamine and an aliphatic 3,394,016 carboxylic acid. (8) German Offen. Hydrogen sulfide and a 4-hydroxy- 1,932,800 2,3,-dihydrofuran-3-one. (9) U.S. Pat. Fish protein hydrolyzate and 2,918,376 cysteine. (10) U.S. Pat. Fish protein hydrolyzate and 2,887,387 saccharide. ______________________________________
However, none of the foregoing references, disclosing processed food flavoring materials, discloses the production of a natural meat-flavored material from reactants containing no egg product and having low protein levels and wherein one of the reactants is a meat enzymatic digest and another of the key reactants is a sulfur-containing compound. Although the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,753 describes reaction products wherein one reactant is an enzymatic digest of meat extract, and another reactant is a mixture of amino acids, e.g., hydrolyzed vegetable protein, the reaction product disclosed does not have the full bodied meaty flavor with the substantially authentic mouthfeel of the flavors of this invention, and no sulfur-containing compound is set forth as one of the reactants. In addition, thiamine or a salt thereof or a precursor thereof is not included as one of the reactants.
The reaction product of cysteine and a hydrolyzed vegetable protein of U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,015 is different in kind from a reaction product produced under conditions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,015 except that the hydrolyzed vegetable protein is replaced with an enzymatic meat digest.
Copending U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 304,805 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,865,958 and Ser. No. 304,806 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,862,343 filed on Nov. 8, 1972 disclose a reaction product wherein all of the above-mentioned reactants are used to form such a reaction product except that meat enzymatic digest is not disclosed as one of the reactants and egg products are not omitted as reactants. The inclusion of egg products and the omission of enzymatic meat digest in the said earlier-filed copending patent applications gives rise to reaction products which are different in kind from those which represent our invention as set forth herein.
Copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 334,894 filed Feb. 22, 1973 discloses a meat-flavored product produced by means of a heat reaction of (i) an egg product (e.g., egg yolk) which may or may not be enzymatically digested (ii) a meat product which may or may not be enzymatically digested and (iii) a sulfur compound such as cystine. The inclusion of an egg product in the said earlier filed copending patent application gives rise to reaction products which are different in kind from those which represent our invention as set forth herein. Furthermore, from a mammalian physiological point of view, the inclusion of an egg product (notwithstanding) its flavor augmenting potential or the differences in flavor nuances caused by its presence in the reaction mass) may in several instances be physiologically detrimental where the individual mammal ingesting the flavor is allergic to one or more of the chemical components of the egg.